Dear Editor,
I am a student living in dorm 51. Since our rooms have been remodeled, we have no space to
walk in the room. We have learnt that it is forbidden to change the shape of the room.
While someone is sitting on a chair studying, she has to stand up when another person
passes by. It is very uncomfortable to study or even to simply live inside of the room.
We pay money for these rooms and we spend most of our time in them. But somehow I feel
like I am staying in a hotel room. As though it is forbidden to touch even the furniture.
Another issue is that the kitchens were moved to the first floor so we have to keep our
garbage inside of our rooms. We have been told that there will be particular hours to put
the garbage outside of the rooms to be collected. We are students with busy schedules and
it is difficult to arrange our hours around putting the garbage out.
We have more important things to do. But when we do not put the garbage outside of the
room, while we are sleeping, the cleaning staff comes in to empty the garbage while we are
sleeping. There is no privacy in our room! If we have to keep the garbage inside of our
rooms, then we should at least be able to move the furniture into a more useful living
arrangement. We have no privacy or any right to live freely in the place that we pay money
for.
Esra Ertor (THEA)
Response to the Letter:
Dear Ms. Ertor,
Thank you for sharing your opinions with us. I would like to express my pleasure in
sharing with you good news regarding the freedom to rearrange rooms. Although our original
idea was to keep standard furniture arrangements for each of our room types, the
considerable number of requests we have received from our residents, including you, made
us feel quite uneasy and unhappy, and we have decided to withdraw our rooms' rearranging
restrictions, with sincere pleasure. Thus, I am happy to announce that our residents,
whose furniture is not fixed to the walls, are free to redesign and rearrange their room's
furniture, as before.
With regard to the issue you raised concerning garbage bins in the rooms, until the
beginning of this academic year, waste bins were positioned outside in front of the
residents' rooms causing an inevitable visual and hygienic dirtiness for not only the
resident him/herself, but for all residents. I want to emphasize that the waste bins in
resident rooms, with regard to the materials they are made of (generally thin plastic) and
their shapes (perforated and non-lidded), are intended to serve as trash receptacles for
dry and odorless garbage only and not for any liquid and/or odorous items. For such
garbage, larger, lidded waste bins are generously placed in all common areas (e.g.,
bathrooms and kitchens). As you have already indicated, the in-room waste bins are emptied
and cleaned twice a day between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. as well as, between 8:00 p.m. and
10:00 p.m. when placed in front of the doors by residents. Otherwise, the cleaning
attendants are not authorized to walk into the rooms and check the waste bins (with the
exception of the weekly scheduled room cleaning). At this point, I would like to apologize
for the officious behavior of our cleaning attendant and to assure you that this will
never happen again in future.
I would like to thank you in advance for your sensitivity and kind cooperation and wish
you continued success in your educational life.
Zeki Samatyalę
Dormitories Manager
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